


Kise’s Tears

by bob2ff



Series: Miracles Hijinks [5]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen, Humor, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-07
Updated: 2014-04-07
Packaged: 2018-01-18 13:35:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1430410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bob2ff/pseuds/bob2ff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kise had always found that tears got him what he wanted. Then he came to Teikou.</p><p>Written for BPS' Challenge 65 (Tears).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kise’s Tears

The only boy in a house with two older sisters, little Kise Ryouta learnt early on that tears would get you what you wanted.

“Ryouta, try this out next time the nanny says no — let your eyes fill with tears, then  _beg_. It  _never fails_!” his older sister whispered, winking at him. Kise soaked it all up.

“No ice cream for you, Ryouta!” his nanny snapped, taking the ice cream away. “You’ve had too much!”

Kise let the tears fill in his eyes, and blinked for maximum effect of the teardrops clustering in his eyelashes. The final touch was a slight wobble in his lower lip. “B-but…it’s  _so hot today_ …” She stared at him, then sighed.

“Fine —  _just one scoop_.” Easy and with barely any effort — Kise was a  _natural_.

“Hm, 100,000 yen for half an hour’s work is pretty steep…” the clothing chain executive was doubtful that Kise Ryouta was worth  _that much_. Surely he could get a cheaper model?

Kise just stared at him. Tears slowly gathered in his eyes, and this time he added a voice waver to clinch it. “B-but, that money’s for my  _higher education fund_ …” The executive sighed, and agreed, as Kise always expected. Negotiations were always a cinch.

People as pretty as Kise normally  _mostly_  got what they wanted. With tears, they  _always_  got what they wanted. People never wanted to make anyone that pretty cry.

Then Kise came to Teikou. At first, the tears worked. The girls lapped up the sensitive yet devilishly teasing model persona he seemed to project. Even boys respected the fact that they could never beat him at anything, so he had earned  _the right_  to be able to cry.

Teikou’s basketball team was different. The coach accepted as fact that training was so  _hard_ boys could be driven to tears. And no matter how much Kise approached Nijimura-senpai with some of his  _best work_ , Nijimura-senpai just flicked him in the forehead and told him to “stop bothering me and get back to your laps.”

It had been Aominechii who had first cut through his fake tears swiftly, quickly, almost ruthlessly, the way he cut through his opponents in basketball, a way Kise aspired and wanted to be so hard. Except he cut through Kise’s tears not with skill but with sheer obliviousness.

“What the hell, Kise? Are you  _crying_?” he said, incredulous. “It can’t be  _that bad_ , right? I mean, sure, you throw up and stuff — hell, Tetsu throws up all the time! — but, damn, I can’t believe this is happening, I mean, what happened? What can I do? What  _should_  I do?“ he was frantic and flailing, so Kise immediately stopped the fake tears. Aominechii was going to call Nijimura-senpai in panic, and Kise had enough of forehead-flicks. They  _hurt_ , okay?

Then Kurokochii had calmly saw through his tears, as clearly as he saw through Kise’s model persona and as quietly as he had suddenly included himself as one of Kise’s most respected friends.

“Kise-kun, tears won’t work here in Teikou. You should know that they are expected here. It would be better if you just bore with it,” he had said, so bluntly it could have been cruel. But he always, always gave Kise a sports drink after practice, still cold from the vending machine. He always had a towel ready to pass to Kise as he collapsed to rest on the benches. And somehow, Kurokochii was always  _around_  whenever Kise doubted if all this practice was worth it, lending his quiet support.

Midorimachii had no patience whatsoever for his tears, the same way he never had patience for Kise’s whole existence. “You look ridiculous, Kise,” he would say imperiously. “You’re being unseemly — behave yourself.”

But then he would text Kise the morning before an upcoming hard session of practice. “Oha Asa ranked Gemini second last today. It would be wise to eat pancakes for breakfast today. And wear something blue.” Of course, even when he was kind, Midorimachii was still Midorimachii. “You look so ridiculous crying you should prevent doing it as much as possible.”

Murasakibarachii sometimes didn’t even notice Kise was crying. It was a wasted effort to try to appeal to him. But the first time Kise tried it…”Eeeh, did you want some umaibo or something? Sorry, I finished it all…want some Pocky instead?” Kise had wasted some of his best efforts on him.

Then it was Akashichii who had saw through him, as Akashichii saw through everyone. He had called Kise for a private meeting. “Ryouta,” he had said. “Are you having trouble at practice?” All of Kise’s instincts had screamed  _not_  to try it on Akashichii, but he  _had_  to take the chance. He allowed his eyes to fill with tears, and opened his mouth to beg.

“Because if you feel that its worth it to try to get out of practice with fake tears, perhaps you don’t belong here.” The sentence had shot through Kise with a jolt of horror.

“No — I…” he began frantically. Then Akashichii interrupted him, smiling, a kinder one. It was both less and more terrifying than a non-smiling Akashichii.

“It’s alright. I understand why you do it. It’s just that we take practice very seriously here in Teikou. Are you able to take practice  _more_  seriously than we do?” The question was less a question then a test, a challenge. Kise had looked straight into Akashichii’s eyes, determination etched into them.

“Yes.” Within the next few weeks, Kise had made it to Teikou’s starting regulars.

Teikou had made Kise take his tears more seriously. Teikou had made Kise take  _basketball_  more seriously. Thus, when Kise cried for real, it had been when he had lost, in basketball.

Because then he had a reason to cry for real.


End file.
